Long Forgotten
by Kyuketsuki1
Summary: The neighborhood was supposed to be long in Helga Pataki's past, but after an accident she is forced to move back, and all the things she doesn't want to remember come flying to the surface.
1. Prologue

Long Forgotten

By: Kyu/The Sister/Gabriel

Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold! and am making no profit from this work.

Author's notes: [none]

Miriam and Bob's divorce came as a surprise only to Helga, who was shocked that her mother would have the backbone to sever the relationship. Like most divorced women, Miriam took her child, moved away, and tried to start a new life that would go better than the one she had just escaped. And for seven years she did very well. On the anniversary of her divorce from the dreaded Big Bob, while on her way back from a club, Miriam's late-model sedan fish-tailed and sent her over the guardrail of a deserted road. She hit her head on the steering wheel and stayed unconscious until the slit veins of her arm from the shattered glass of the half-open window and the crack in her skull finally killed her approximately half an hour after the crash.

Sixteen-year-old Helga moved back in with her father two weeks after her mother's funeral, returning to the house she had left when she was nine and the life she thought she would never see again.

It was common to get new students mid-year. Public city schools had their fair share of nomads, and so when Miss Weiss lifted her eyes from the memo on her desk to the girl standing in the doorway, she was not surprised. She got to her feet and introduced herself to the blonde, who had the tired look that only teen angst could bring. Patting the girl on the arm, she directed the new student to the back of the room where a recently vacated seat awaited her.

"Alright, kids. Pay attention. Yesterday we started on Kafka's _Metamorphosis_. I'm going to assume that all of you did your reading and ask for comments. If you didn't do the assignment, for the love of God pay attention, because you have a quiz at the end of the period." 

As she spoke she went to the cabinet beside her desk and withdrew a copy of the small book, which she carried back to Helga Pataki listlessly.

"This is our open forum when students ask questions or make statements and other students respond, though most of the kids think it's nap time. In fifteen minutes we go to lunch. The open forum lasts until then. Feel free to start on the book, but don't feel obligated to read the assignment. You'll be exempt from the test."

The girl nodded. "Okay." No hint of smile at the joke, no polite gratitude. Just a shrug of her thin shoulders. Miss Weiss didn't care. She had done her "you can talk to me, I'm a cool teacher" bit. Now it was the students' turn to greet the fresh meat. She didn't think that the quiet girl would have to wait long before getting a few introductions. That quiet bitter look was all the rage these days.

Helga didn't look around the room. She opened the book Weiss had put on her desk and tried desperately to look unapproachable. Bob had been tip-toeing around her since her arrival and had even offered to let her take the rest of the year off and hire a tutor when school was mentioned, but she needed to get out of the house, and so had hopped a bus to sign up for classes only a few days after her plane landed. Anything to get her away from Big Bob, who treated her more like a child now than he ever had before, even when she was still toddling around the house and banging clumsily into walls as she found her feet for the first time. He was trying to get a second chance with her, but Helga wanted nothing to do with it, though she had to admit she appreciated the effort.

Her own effort paid off and the students did not try to speak to her, though she knew that as soon as the bell rang she would probably be swarmed. And since she was at the back of the class there was no quick escape as there had been during her first three classes.

Helga felt the beginning of worry knot up her stomach as she realized that soon they would be abandoning their desks for the cafeteria. She could always go to the office and call Bob, who would come and pick her up without a complaint, but she didn't want to have to talk to him, to explain why she had panicked.

She buried herself in the book and hoped that when she looked up lunch would be over, miraculously skipped over by the gods of time. Kafka was a good escape. His constant trauma took her quickly from her own, so that soon enough she was struggling to right herself on her bed, tiny insect legs flailing impotently in the air.

The bell rang.

Helga blinked stupidly up as the class dissolved into chaos. Only a few students lingered. She rose from her seat and shoved her purse onto her shoulder, hands only slightly shaking as she clutched Kafka. If she could find an empty table at lunch she could fend off the students again with the impenitrable shield of the thin paperback.

A polite cough drew her eyes to where a tall boy stood beside her desk.

"I don't want to bother you on your first day, but...well, I was thinking maybe you'd like someone to sit with at lunch. Unless you already have people waiting for you."

Helga smiled gratefully. "Thanks."

He returned her smile, though his own didn't seem as if it could faulter at any moment and slip away. She was grateful for that. Perhaps his self-assurance would be infectuous.

"No problem. I just hope you can put up with me."

"The feeling is mutual."

He laughed. Her smile became a bit more sure. Perhaps this wouldn't be as bad as she imagined.


	2. Chapter One

Part I

The people at the table all looked vaguely familiar to Helga, though she didn't know why. They looked up when the boy approached, smiling their daily overture. Only a few of those smiles faded when their eyes drifted to the girl walking beside him.

"Hey guys. I want you to meet," he stopped, shocked for a moment, before laughing uncomfortably. "I completely forgot to ask what your name is. Shit, I'm sorry."

The girl shook her head. "That's alright. I didn't ask yours either." She shifted her books against her chest and put out her hand. "Helga Pataki."

A tray clattered noisily to the ground.

"Helga? You mean... Wait a minute, did you go to P.S. 118?"

She didn't understand the baffled looks she was getting from the table and kept her eyes nervously locked onto the boy's, just in case she saw something she would regret.

"Yes. Until fifth grade."

"I don't believe it. This is great! I'm Arnold."

Helga shifted under the expectant gaze. "I'm sorry, but...it doesn't ring a bell."

"Oh." His face fell, but he tried valiantly to recover his smile. "Well, that's okay. I mean, that was a long time ago." He looked down at his feet for a moment before turning suddenly to his friends, who watched closely. "Anyway, these guys pretty much all went to elementary with us. You might remember them. We weren't all that close."

She nodded, feeling silly. She tightened her grip on Kafka.

"Um, that's Gerald, with the hair. And the tall ugly one's Stinky."

The boy, who was indeed much taller than Arnold, did not look up from his food as he gave Helga's escort the finger. The table laughed politely.

"Sid's in the black, and that's Phoebe." He offered her the empty chair beside his own.

Helga sat down quickly, hoping to escape the gazes of her long forgotten childhood friends. Phoebe was the only one who seemed to bring up some watery memories, but none were clear enough to warrant her starting a conversation with the petite Japanese girl.

Arnold, sensing the sudden discomfort, put his arm on the back of her chair. "You gonna get something to eat? I'll walk you through the line, if you want. It's kinda a circus in there."

She wanted to go with him, if only to escape these strange people who should have flooded her with happy memories, but the thought of food made her stomach lurch, and if she accompanied him she would be obligated to buy something. She politely shook her head.

"No thanks. I don't have much of an appetite."

He nodded. "Okay. Well, I'm gonna go on ahead. Starving." He forced a lop-sided smile. "Sorry."

Helga shrugged. "I don't mind." Her own forced smile was more firm than she thought she could manage, but felt tight on her face. "I'll take a rain check on the tour, though, if you don't mind."

Arnold shook his head. "My pleasure." He joined Gerald at the head of the table and Helga forced her attention back to her lap. She wanted desperately to return to the safety of her book, but if she was unreachable to these people they would probably give her the cold shoulder, or even worse, ask her to leave. So far Arnold was the only person she had been able to find the least bit of comfort around. She couldn't risk losing that yet.

The silence that descended was not the quick and painless kind that had claimed her in the classroom. Each moment was filled with worry that one of them would ask why she had returned at long last to the city that she had been away from for so long. She could have told them with a straight face, could have even probably managed to make it sound casual, but she was too tired to attempt it, so she studied her lap irresolutely.

Gerald was the first to break the silence. "I don't believe it."

Arnold glanced at him as he pulled a plate down onto his tray. "What?"

"It's Helga." He shook his head. "I mean, I never expected to see her again in a million years."

"Yeah, I know...it's kinda weird that she doesn't remember us." He shrugged awkwardly. "But I guess it has been a long time."

"You know why she's back?"

Arnold looked up at his best friend. "Didn't think to ask. You think I should? I mean, she left on kinda bad terms, remember?"

Gerald remembered. The divorce had seemed to truly shake the blonde, who had walked around in a sort of daze until the final papers were drawn up and she was withdrawn from school, only to move away a few days later with her mother and half of Big Bob's Beeper Emporium profit. In the beginning Phoebe would occasionally come to school with a short letter telling her best friend how great it was to be away, but eventually the letters stopped. They had all assumed that it was great enough to make her forget all about P.S. 118. Now their suspicions seemed to be confirmed, but Arnold had the feeling there was more to it than that.

"You don't have to, man. I was just curious."

Arnold nodded. He would ask.

The final bell let loose a pandemonium that Helga hadn't seen in ages. Her school in Denver was private and had been paid for with the hard-earned wages of Big Bob, who had requested an occasional visit with his youngest daughter, but never bothered to do anything more about it. The strict Catholic school was a sort of bubble in which the cacophony of the outside world did not reach. Her teachers, all men and women of the cloth, were not the strict ruler-wielding dictators she had expected, but rather soft-spoken young men and women who created such an atmosphere of calm that none of the students felt compelled to break it. Even the short breaks taken in the quad had been peaceful.

The bustling inner-city high school took her by surprise.

Arnold flagged her down from across the crowded hall.

"You doing anything tonight?"

Helga shrugged. "Not that I know of."

He expected more, but after a few moments of silence he realized that he wasn't going to get anything. "Well, I was thinking that I could show you around the city. I mean, I know your dad's probably given you the tour, but..."

She shook her head. "No." He had wanted to, but she had turned him down. She feel like telling Arnold that.

"So you want to?"

Helga shut her locker. "Do you mind stopping at my house first? Bob's gotten really protective since I came back, and if I just go... He wouldn't have a fit, but I don't want to do anything he's prepared a speech for, just in case I happen to fly off the handle."

Arnold shrugged. "I don't mind." He shifted uncomfortably. "So, when?"

"Oh, you mean you didn't want to do it this afternoon?"

"I did, I just wasn't sure you wanted to." He rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed.

"I want to." She took his arm. "You need to check in at home, or are you good to go?"

Arnold looked down at her, surprised somehow. "I'm good."

Helga smiled. "Good."

tbc...


End file.
